key change

Hi and welcome. :D I'm no genius and we have good players and great teachers here, with expertise and prominence. 8)

Unfortunately for those who know what they're talking about, I just never go to sleep, and have a guitar beside the bed.

Anyhow if this is your last chord:

http://www.chordie.com/ramimages/i8/D7sus4chord_N00213_1.pn g">http://www.chordie.com/ramimages/i8/D7sus4chord_N00213_1.pn g">
... and you want to go to another song with a C major, with dissonance: A combination of tones contextually considered to suggest unrelieved tension and require resolution.

Although I know nothing in theory and would welcome being overruled by the pros, I disregarded my own ignorance, played 40 years and wrote songs. I find what I would be looking for by going to a plain D7 next, to Em, and presto... comes C. That's how it works for me? :lol: It's one way?

And for the actual "key of C" I have found this lesson:

The Key of C
Step 1 Freely strum the sequence C, F, G. Disregard tempo and meter for now.

Step 2 Strum each chord four times repeating the sequence of C, F, G.

Step 3 Strum C four times, F two times, and G two times and repeat.

Step 4 Repeat Step 21 while keeping a steady tempo. Use a metronome if accessible.

Step 5 Strum C four times, F two times, and G four times.

Step 6 Strum each chord two times.

Step 7 Strum C two times, F two times, A minor four times, and G four times.

It is BTW from here http://www.ehow.com/how_13286_play-guitar-key.html :wink:

There are lots of ways to modulate, or change keys.

The most common one is by secondary dominant - a D7 could naturally lead to a G chord, and by using G7 instead, you'd set up a smooth transition to C.

Another way is by parallel modulation - keeping a chord root the same, but changing the type of chord. So you could let your progression return to A, and go from A to Am - since that's the relative minor of C, you could then follow it with a C chord. That'll give you an entirely different feeling... it's going to be clearer that you're changing keys.

A third way is by pivot - find a chord that's in both keys. In your first progression, G major can be used in the key of C; you could continue the first progression through the A and G chords, and move from there to C.

There are other ways too, but those three will be the most direct given the keys you're using.

thanks guys- tried some of the ideas you suggested and see how they could work, but they don't quite have the feel i'm looking for. Which isn't to say the ideas haven't been helpful, because they have got the ole' noggin turning. What I'm loooking at now is holding the last D7sus4 an extra couple of measures, then going to E7, A7, D7, G7 before resolving to C.

The thinking was to use the tritone in the tonic A (G# and D, contained in E7) and follow it around the circle of 5ths until G7, which resolves to C. My theory is pretty weak so i'm not sure that i know what i'm talking about here, but that is what seems to be going on.

Incidentally, I did notice that just by holding the D7sus4 for a while it also resolved to C.

Anyway, thanks again

I like to use I and I#dim7 in the original key - the dim7 has two tritones so it can go anywhere - followed by a ii-V-I cadence in the new key. That way I can go to the new key in one step, even if it's something like G major to F minor.

A :-)